"But then perhaps it's true for all of us; if the paradox is that it's our hopes and aspirations which imprison us, then maybe in the end we're all women." —People Like Us, series 2

"The surprising truth is that bleaching, coloring, or even perming your hair will not increase your risk of hair loss." —Colette Bouchez, Your Perfectly Pampered Menopause

Originally, the E of e-mail stood for eagle. From What Was the Gunpowder Plot by John Gerard (1897).  The caption reads: "The gallant Eagle, soaring up on high."

Although fables do not have to contain animals, animals are repositories of fables.  Also, did you know that a swan song can be a story told to a swan?  From Little Loving Hearts Poem Book by Margaret Elenora Tupper, 1882.  The caption reads, "Come and tell me your story."

Who is the biggest?  The man, most people would say.  But the man is really the smallest, and the little girl is the biggest.  We find proof in a perspective illusion from The Book of Knowledge (1912, pictured right).

There's only one picture on the internet of a badger on bamboo, and that picture was printed upside down in its source -- Young Americans in Japan by Edward Greey, 1882.

The last non-deceiving mirror was manufactured in 1835, just before German chemist Justus von Liebig developed a process for silvering the rear surface of glass.  No silvered mirror's reflection can be trusted; only polished discs of bronze or copper or small glass mirrors backed by lead, tin, or antimony neither flatter nor deceive.

It's commonly thought that there are no corners on a globe, yet here's one from Man and Nature on the Broads by Arthur Henry Patterson (1895).  The caption reads: "A quiet corner."

Not only is light both a particle and a wave, but so is time.   From Castle Rackrent and The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth (1895).  The caption reads: "If you could stand still for one single particle of a second."

Forget the (hilarious) twelve meals of Britain.  We learn in the British comedy series Fonejacker that plumbers and builders enjoy an additional eight tea breaks per working day: 10:30 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00 p.m., 2:37 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:03 p.m.

But they also enjoy no fewer than sixteen biscuit breaks, at 10:30 a.m., 10:50 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 11:52 a.m., 12:01 p.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:00 p.m. (lunch), 2:00 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:00 p.m., 3:14 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 3:41 p.m., 4:03 p.m., 4:06 p.m., and 4:13 p.m.

We've included a picture of "as many tea breaks as you like," also courtesy of Fonejacker.

[For Jonathan.]

The meaning of life is having needs. 

You've heard the expression "neither here nor there."  The "here" of things is your immediate environment. But what is "there"? Over "there" is nothing less than a pudding in the form of a lion couchant. We find our evidence in Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, 1898.

Before the discovery of continental drift, geologists elegantly explained transoceanic similarities of life by crediting giant monkeys.  Our illustration is from The Star of the Sea: A Historical Novel by N. Gregor, 1897.

"According to the Gnostics, we are already dead and living in Hell right now." —Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Laughing Jesus

Ruined castles are actually the bones of once vibrant creations, not only alive but kicking.  (You've surely heard of flying buttresses.)  Our illustration of "a real live castle" is from Our Boys in Ireland by Henry Willard French, 1891.

"We can – rather surprisingly – owe duties to the dead and also to a great range of anonymous future people." —Tom Bentley, The Moral Universe

"There are significant differences between what's interesting and what's really interesting." —Jim Sterne, Social Media Metrics

It's unlucky to rechristen a boat "Jonah" with an albatross quill on Candlemas Day if a red-headed woman is whistling on board.

You knew that Juan Ponce de León led the first European expedition to Florida.  But did you know he also inspired the presidential White House?

"You may find it impossible to believe that this all depends on you, but I am willing to risk that you can accept the truth."
—Deepak Chopra, Buddha (2008)